You ever do, or see done, the thing with the croquet balls? You have two balls right up against each other. You put your foot on the one in back, and smack it with the mallet. Guess what happens to the one in front? If you guessed that it flies forward, you win.
Sure. Please be so kind as to post your full name, bank branch, location and accout number, your home address (for cash deliveries) and your licence plate number and we’ll start passing the virtual hat. We contributors absolutely would never consider informing your local police department, insurance company or child welfare branch of your driving habits, now would we?
Just to be clear :wally
I appreciate your concern, and will keep it in mind if and when the situation arises again. What I don’t understand is the sanctimonious attitude that’s coming from all these “concerned citizens.”
Is there? I see a number of messages from folks who say they’re concerned about my son’s well-being, but who are now conspicuously silent when I ask them to actually do something about it. Instead, I see a bunch of folks who talk a good game, and nothing more.
I’m just wondering how this thread migrated from “rant about careless parents” to “heap on rjung day”, myself. But then, I suppose y’all must lead such shallow lives that preaching is what passes for amusement. 
The worst I’ve seen here in Japan is a woman driving one of those tiny cars with lawn-mower engines, with one child on her lap and one on her back.
:o
whoops, wrong smiley. It was supposed to be the shocked one.
Oh, well.
You really can’t figure this out, can you?
We are concerned about the well-being of children. We also know your smart-ass challenge was not meant seriously.
**
You’re the one who made this an argument, instead of taking our advice. If deej’s post didn’t convince you that car seats are a necessity, I guess nothing will.
Is there a problem in the marriage: maybe differing views on the child’s upbringing? Please don’t take it out on your son.
Just to make it clear - when a kid gets creamed and blenderized in a car accident I don’t worry too much about the kid. After all, their problem are over. And the parents… well, losing a child is arguably the worst that can happen to a person in this life, so they’ll just have to deal with it.
The person(s) I feel sorry for are the ones who have to clean the mess off the parent(s), the car, and the road.
Even back in the 60’s my parents strapped us into car seats and seat belts. Every time. Didn’t start the car until that was done.
If you drive/ride with a child in your lap, in the event of an accident the child becomes your secondary restraint device a.k.a. “airbag”. If you choose to do this, even for “three blocks” do so with this knowledge. I’m very big on freedom of choice, but only informed choice. And if we’re talking the front seat, with an airbag, if that airbag deploys (and they can do so in fender benders as slow as 5 mph) the child in your lap will almost certainly be killed. Decapitation is not unkown, so if you don’t mind running the risk of your kid’s head in the backseat and the rest of the tyke sitting your lap, geysering blood out of a neck stump, go right ahead. Ain’t your driving I’m worried about, it’s the other idiots on the road.
So the kid screams in the back seat for three blocks. It’s just noise. LOUD noise, yes, but just noise. Who’s in charge, you or the kid? If they learn that screaming to be held three blocks from home gets no results they’ll usually stop those tricks. If there is something actually wrong with the kid pull over and take care of it, but otherwise sweet’ums can wait the five minutes to get home.
And it’s ain’t just death you have to worry about - anyone not belted in is risking injury that might not otherwise occur. Would be a pity to spend the college fund on an electric wheelchair, respriator, and round the clock nursing care for your quadraplegic kid, wouldn’t it?
But, as I said, it is YOUR choice. If you want to teach your kids that it’s OK to disregard safety for a few minutes convenience, that’s your choice. If you want to risk unnecessary maiming and/or death for your child, that’s your choice.
I just happen to think it’s a stupid choice. But what the heck do I know? I mean, I’m stupid enough to wear a helmet while on my bicycle, mainly because I’ve had one concussion in my life and don’t care to ever suffer another. I also wear a helmet on the rare occassion I ride a motorcycle. I strap myself in while flying an airplane. On commercial flights I even keep the seatbelt on unless I’m getting up to take a leak - and I try to avoid needing to do that.
What to hear something funny? A friend of mine who used to race motorcycles on a professional level always wears a helmet, jacket, and shoes while riding his. The owner of the airport I base my flying at is a former Indy car driver - you know, used to wear Nomex underwear to work, quite capable of handling cars at speeds in the triple digits, survivor of multiple crashes - and he also buckles up when driving on the road. Every time. Funny, he’s not in the habit of speeding, either.
If the pros wear helmets and belts… maybe they know something I don’t? Both these men are 70, long-term survivors from dangerous occupations. Sold me on the concept.
Are seat belts or helmets going to save you from death or injury every time? Of course not. But they are cheap, simple means to reduce your risk. Properly fitted, they’re about as uncomfortable as learning to wear shoes - uncomfortable as first, but you get used to it, then learn to ignore it.
But… it’s your choice. Choose wisely.
Good lord. rjung, you simply are so defensive at this point that there’s nothing anyone can say or do. Due to the anonymity of the SDMB, none of us will ever know which local newspaper story about a baby dying while restrained in her mother’s arms is your baby.
Fucking college fund shallow idiotic joke. Are you out of your MIND??? The fact that zev, Deej and Cartooniverse have seen this face to face by dint of our collective careers doesn’t mean that you get to thumb your nose at the rest of the Dopers here who are expressing outrage at your attitude.
Yes, yes, anything could happen at any moment. As I’ve frequently joked in my more bitter moments, I don’t have to worry about getting old because I am going to be hit by a bus when I’m 51 while crossing Madison Avenue and die in a split-second. Anything can happen. You can start a separate thread about the Collective Good v.s. Corporate Profits, and the impact of that argument on the initial fights AGAINST seat belts.
The rule in my home is the rule my parents brought us up with. The key doesn’t turn in the ignition until all seat belts are locked. Personally, I’d LOVE to have cars wired that way.
Of course, it wouldn’t stop people like ** mrs. rjung ** from carrying her baby on her lap, offering it up to the implacable Gods of Physics and Projectiles as a human sacrifice. How thoroughly horrific.
:mad:
Cartooniverse, NYS EMT.
They do? The last I tried that (last week in a pastoral part of Lawn Guyland) I got a run around about whose jurisdiction the car was in and would be in if it kept along its present path, then I got a lecture from the 911 operator about violating the NY law about drivers and handheld cell phones. I said “Hey, if I save a kid’s life, I’ll gladly pay the damned fine.”
I followed the jackasses, who had two toddlers, both easily under 3, walking around in the back of their minivan, all the way to their own driveway. No police car ever came within eyeshot of us. If I weren’t hugely pregnant and unable to therefore run away quickly, I would’ve said something. Instead I just sat at the end of the driveway, and prayed a long prayer of protection for those kids, and asked for forgiveness for the malice I had built in my heart against the parents over the span of eight miles.
And yet, you keep coming back and responding to this thread.
It really saddens me to know that some people are incapable of admitting they’re making a mistake. It angers me that some of those will gladly risk their children’s lives because of that.
Here’s what I venture to say happened…rjung came in to make a quick comment which he thought wouldn’t hold too much sway in the discussion, but I VENTURE to say he hoped at least two or three would say “oh…don’t worry, doing that once in a while is ok”.
When it didn’t happen that way, and he was called for his irresponsible behavior, he decided to a) go defensive, blaming the wife and child for the instances of irresponsibility, b) go funny and accusatory, turning it all back on us and telling us that if we didn’t want his child to die a bloody, horrible death we should be just as willing to pay for it’s college education (a leap I’m still struggling with) and then c) play martyr, saying he’s taking the brunt for all irresponsible parents.
RJUNG: The plain and simple fact is…you are doing something UNSAFE and WRONG. There’s no gray area. I will not send you money for your child…because we’re not talking about college. We’re talking about the baby even LIVING to see college because you don’t feel like listening to it whine.
I don’t recall ever writing anything that said that an unsecured child in a moving vehicle was safe and acceptable. I was merely trying to point out that – even for a staunchly pro-belt advocate like myself – it happens on rare occassions, and blanket condemnation of people doesn’t quite work without knowing the context of the situation.
But I’m sure this will whoosh over everyone’s heads, since apparently it’s more fun to beat your breasts in holy indignation than to actually read what someone wrote and think about the matter.
Then again, this is the BBQ Pit, not Great Debates, so I suppose I should have known better. 
(I’m just curious how many of the folks who have been criticizing my atrocious parenting skills have actually confronted a real-life “negligent parent” and lectured them about the dangers of having unsecured children in a car. I suspect the answer is zero, since it’s far easier to write withering diatribes on a public forum than it is to actually deliver those things face-to-face.)
And again, while I see a lot of lip-flapping about the sanctity of child welfare, I don’t see a lot of actual action about it. Talk is cheap, folks.
I’m sorry, what’s the context here? Were you being held at gunpoint by terrorists who said if you put your child in the proper safety seat, they’d kill you? Were you en route to the emergency room because your child had come down with Ebola and your three-blocks-away hospital had a miracle cure that would only work in the first six minutes of infection?
**
One. Or three, depending on how you want to count it.
Good thing this is the Pit. Listen fucknugget, I’ve gotten OUT OF MY CAR to walk over to another car AT A STOP LIGHT to yell at their window, " Put your kid in their car seat" or " Seatbelt your kids !! ". I’ve attended ambulance corps open houses to show parents how to fit their car seats, and use them appropriately.
I’ve been told to fuck off, I’ve gotten guilty stares, I’ve gotten parents who got OUT of their car and did something about it. I’ve never been attacked, thank god.
I pissed OFF my brother in law and his wife by REFUSING to let them ride in my van with their very very young ( 5 months? 4 months?) daughter in her mother’s arms, in the seat. My wife, her parents AND this baby’s parents all gave me shit. I told them flat out that I would NOT drive, and if my wife was dumb enough to give in and drive like that, that I’d not go to the cousins house that day. I WILL NOT BE IN A CAR where that is happening, and I will go OUT of my way to prevent it.
So, fuck you. 
I’m not the only Doper out there who actually walks the walk. You, OTOH, are still rumming around hoping we’re going to send your child to college in a twisted attempt to show that while your behavior is fine, OURS is atrocious.
Contex of WHAT situation??? stankow pretty much just covered this while I was writing, I just caught it in Preview. Context? Ooooooooh, do enlighten us. Whaddya gonna say to the District Attorney? " Hey, asshole, my wife was TIRED and the baby was CRANKY and I had every Constitutional Right in America to do as I saw fit with my child". That’ll fly. :rolleyes:
Don’t come whining here when you are t-boned two blocks from home and your wife suffers broken ribs, and is in a lot of pain at your child’s funeral. I don’t give one rat’s ass how fine and cautious a driver you are. So, what city do you live in again where there are NO OTHER DRIVERS ANYWHERE AROUND YOUR CAR EVER when the baby is not safely held in place? Name the town.
IDIOT. :mad:
Don’t mind me. I’m just waiting to see when rjung decides to stop digging.
I think I better stop now, since apparently some of the folks in this thread are just a hair’s breath away from going postal. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for, say, Cartooniverse going looney tunes and attacking some poor suburbanites.
(Yeah, I know, it’s a short trip for 'im, but hey )
Look, the point’s been made and we all agree that rjung’s should insist that his child ride in the car seat all the time. However, as jar noted:
I would venture to guess that he will think twice as hard when the situation arises next time. Who knows-he may piss off the wife and insist that baby rjung stay in the car seat.
However, y’all aren’t giving him any room to save face and admit that he was wrong. Nope,post after post lectures him about the dire consequences of his action. Now, we’re calling him “fucknugget”.
That’s one of the less endearing traits of message boards. Unlike a good IRL argument, (and please note that I said good), the sure density and volume of responses makes it difficult for any poster to gracefully admit error. Maybe we should stop trying to watch him dig his own grave and give him a little leeway.
and make that “sheer”
i think we’ve given him a good four or five days to admit he was wrong, but instead he asks for college money…trying to make US look bad.
That’s not too endearing either.
j